Suspected Binance Hack Drains $5.5B as Tether and Circle Freeze $1.8B

A suspected Binance hack moved at least $5.57 billion out of wallets linked to the world’s largest crypto exchange on Thursday, October 29, 2026, according to an on-chain tally cited by Decrypt. Tether and Circle froze about $1.8 billion in stablecoins in the main receiving wallet. Binance says it is investigating and hasn’t confirmed any impact on user funds.

This is a developing story, and Binance hasn’t officially called the incident a hack.

What happened in the Binance hack

The outflows came from Binance hot wallets, the internet-connected wallets exchanges use to process withdrawals. Decrypt reported $3.51 billion on Ethereum, $1.44 billion in Bitcoin (18,270 BTC) and $630 million on Tron. If confirmed as a hack, it would be the largest crypto hack on record.

The first Ethereum transaction landed at 20:24 UTC. It sent 167,464 ETH plus 63 token transfers, including 1.615 billion USDT, from a wallet labeled “Binance 14” to a brand-new address. BlockchainReporter noted that “Binance 16” sent another 28,005 ETH to the same address 24 seconds later.

How the suspected exploit worked

On-chain data points to EIP-7702, an Ethereum feature that lets an ordinary wallet run smart-contract code. According to FinanceFeeds, an address funded through the Tornado Cash mixer deployed a withdrawal contract at 15:59 UTC, more than four hours before the drain. At 20:20 UTC, Binance 14 was switched to run that contract’s code through an EIP-7702 delegation. Etherscan labels the addresses “Binance Hot Wallet Exploiter”.

“7702 lets a normal wallet execute delegated code. The delegation persists; that code can authorize later transfers without another signature from the wallet,” Odysseas Lamtzidi, founder of Phylax Systems, wrote on X.

How the attacker obtained the signature needed to install that delegation is still unknown.

What’s confirmed and what isn’t

“We have not confirmed any impact to user funds,” Binance wrote on X. The exchange said updates would come through its official channels and warned users about scams. A spokesperson gave BeInCrypto the same line and urged users to avoid unofficial links and requests for account information.

Changpeng Zhao went further. Around 21:15 UTC he posted that it “does look like a hack on Binance” and said user funds are safe. He added that he no longer runs Binance.com but, as a shareholder, expects all user funds to be fully covered. Binance hasn’t said whether it will tap its SAFU emergency fund, set up in 2018, Coindoo reported.

The size is also unsettled. Other outlets put the total at $2.77 billion, about $3.3 billion or up to $3.55 billion.

Stablecoin freezes and background

Circle froze 823 million USDC at 21:04 UTC. “In coordination with law enforcement, we have frozen more than 800M USDC associated with the incident,” CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote on X. Tether froze 975.1 million USDT in the same wallet, per Decrypt. BeInCrypto, however, saw a Tether freeze request of about 971.1 million USDT still pending when it checked the blacklist registry. Later reports said Tether’s total rose above 1.5 billion USDT, which would lift combined freezes to roughly $2.3 billion.

FinanceFeeds estimated that about $700 million in USDT and $445 million in ETH moved before the freezes or sat outside them.

On October 27, Binance said it had blocked several cyberattacks tied to North Korean actors and the “Contagious Interview” fake-hiring campaign, with no systems compromised and no assets lost. There’s no confirmed link to Thursday’s incident. For scale, Binance lost 7,000 BTC (about $40 million) in a 2019 hack. The Bybit heist of February 2025 was roughly $1.5 billion, so the $5.57 billion tally would be more than triple that.

Market reaction

According to FXStreet, Bitcoin dropped below $80,000 and ETH below $2,300 after the news, and Coinglass data showed about $600 million in liquidations within one hour. Crypto Briefing reported BNB fell as much as 9% to around $694. BeInCrypto noted that the broader selloff was already underway before the wallet alerts, so a direct causal link remains unproven.

Asset	Price (USD)	1h change	24h change
Bitcoin (BTC)	$79,287	-2.45%	-2.30%
Ethereum (ETH)	$2,278.99	-3.35%	-3.36%
BNB	$706.01	-6.35%	-6.58%
XRP	$1.26	-3.47%	-5.43%
Solana (SOL)	$97.41	-3.77%	-4.78%

Data from CoinGecko as of 21:43 UTC, October 29, 2026. Monero rose about 6% to $637, per Decrypt. USDT slipped roughly 0.1% below $1 on some exchange quotes. One decentralized swap quote showed a much deeper discount, but BeInCrypto said that isolated quote does not establish a market-wide depeg. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index read 51 (Neutral) on October 29.

What to watch next after the Binance hack

The key item is an official Binance post-mortem. It should show whether the outflows are confirmed as theft, how the delegation signature was obtained and whether customer balances are affected. Also watch for further freezes, movement of unfrozen funds through mixers and any SAFU decision.

BeInCrypto advised users to check Binance updates directly through its official app or website, verify entire recipient addresses, use saved withdrawal allowlists and avoid copying addresses from transaction history. As a general precaution, never share a seed phrase or account credentials with anyone who contacts you. Holding funds on any exchange carries counterparty risk, and prices can swing sharply while facts are still emerging.

FAQ

Was there a Binance hack on October 29, 2026?

Binance hasn’t confirmed one and says it is investigating. Zhao said it looks like a hack, and an on-chain tally shows at least $5.57 billion leaving Binance-linked wallets.

Are Binance user funds safe?

Binance says it hasn’t confirmed any impact on user funds. Zhao expects them to be fully covered, but Binance hasn’t said how any losses would be handled.

How much did Tether and Circle freeze?

Tether froze 975.1 million USDT and Circle froze 823 million USDC, about $1.8 billion. Later reports put Tether’s total above 1.5 billion USDT.

Sources

• Binance Drained of $5.5 Billion in Suspected Hack, Tether and Circle Freeze $1.8 Billion (Decrypt)
• Binance Hack: $2 Billion Drained, Circle and Tether Freeze, Crypto Markets React (BeInCrypto)
• Binance Founder CZ Confirms Hack – User Funds “Safe” (coindoo.com)
• Binance Hack? $3.3B Drained, Tether and Circle Freeze $1.8B (financefeeds.com)
• Binance Hack: CZ Says Funds Safe After $2.5B Outflow (blockchainreporter.net)
• BNB falls as much as 9% after reports of $2.77 billion leaving Binance wallets (cryptobriefing.com)
• Breaking: Binance potentially hacked for $2.77 billion (www.fxstreet.com)
• BNB News Today: Why BNB Is Down (coinstats.app)

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile; always do your own research before investing.